Where Are All The Forks?
Day 0 - Beijing:
I arrived at Beijing Airport around 2pm Beijing time, 13.5 hours after taking off in Newark around 12:30pm EST. I watched a rousing 5 movies on the flight, with 0 hours of shut-eye. After meeting up with Cooper outside immigration we left the airport for our hotel in central Beijing. Our first exchange with a Chinese person was in the taxi where we tried our best to communicate the name of the hotel, but with little success. Only after speaking to his English speaking friend? colleague? on the phone were we finally able to locate the hotel, with a promise from the “friend” that if it was not the right hotel, we could try another one. Luckily, we found it on the first try and because I didn’t know how to communicate our victory I thought it only appropriate to use the universal language of applause.
In the remaining hours of daylight (and with whatever energy I could muster after not sleeping for 24 hours), we were able to check out Tiananmen square, and the entrance to the Forbidden City with Chairman Mao’s watchful gaze looming over us. Starving, we wandered into a restaurant that appeared clean and comfortable. Though the waitress appeared to be speaking rapid chinese, forming complicated sentences to our befuddlement, it’s probably the case that she was slowing articulating “HELLO, WHAT DO YOU WANT?”. We did our best to point to items on the menu (something we’ve become very accustomed to), and said thank you as much as possible. Cooper’s food arrived first and he began eating. It wasn’t until the second dish arrived about 5 minutes later that we realized he had been eating my dish all along. At least the waitresses were laughing. Meal #1: success.
Day 1: Having passed out at 8:30pm the night before, I awoke easily around 6am ready to go. We walked back to Tiananmen square and I got a sweet Chairman Mao wrist watch. At each second he salutes. I bargained down from 150 Yuan to 50 Yuan (approx $7) - I just hope it continues to work long enough to show people at home. At opening time, we walked right under Mao and into the Forbidden City. The City covers 700,000 square meters and is comprised of over 900 rooms. The Forbidden City is a bit of a misnomer since at peak hours it makes Times Square look like Main Street Hyannis. We made the right call going early, and we even had some more obscure corners of the City to ourselves for a few moments. It was a truly magnificent site, and apart from the throngs of tourists we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves exploring blindly.
After about 4 hours of exploring we took a cab to an area around the lakes to the north of the Forbidden City (Hou Hai) for some lunch. While waiting for lunch we ran into twin sisters from Minnesota who joined us for the meal. They had been in China for four weeks and one of them spoke decent Chinese. We hung out for a bit post-lunch and we were lucky enough to get some great recommendations from them. I also learned how to say I have no penis: Mei Yo Gigi.
Leaving the restaurant I accidentally dropped the Chairman Mao watch on the ground. When I exclaimed “Oh no Chairman Mao!” a Chinese worker next to me laughed and mimicked “Oh no Chairman Mao! ha ha ha.” My first Chinese friend - then he asked me to buy something.
After parting ways we headed to Jing Shan Park, which overlooks the Forbidden City. For some reason the park was full of singing groups. Group sizes ranged from 4 people to 40 people. The voices of the larger groups echoed throughout the entire park, which made for a surreal climb to the top. As we reached the main Pagoda, we were struck again with the magnificence of the Forbidden City, only this time from a different angle. I’m eager to get these pictures up on Flickr, and will do so as soon as I get back to the States. That’s all for now folks. Hou Hai and the Night Market for dinner tonight, then an early morning tomorrow as we cab it out to the Simatai section of the Great Wall (of China) for a full day of hiking.
